Memory card corrupted? – Easy fixes and solutions

Memory card corrupted? Don’t panic just yet! Often, while transferring data if the memory card is taken out or if the power is shut off, it tends to get corrupted and unusable. We’re going to tell you how to fix corrupted memory cards, using a few common solutions that could solve your problem. But keep in mind that completely destroyed or physically damaged memory cards cannot be fixed easily, neither can data recovery be done from them other than using professional data recovery solutions which can be really expensive. For situations where the memory card is not recognized or cannot be used due to incorrect formatting, here’s what you need to do!

Memory Card Corrupted – The Problems

Problem 1 – Memory card can be read but not accessed

When you take out a memory card during data transfer, the file structure can get scrambled and ultimately, your device or PC might not be able to read any data from it. However, the actual data is still present in it. This memory card corrupted can be fixed by the doing the following:

Step 1 – Plug in the memory card via an adapter, card reader or any way you can to your computer.

Step 2 – Check if the memory card shows up in File Explorer, it most probably won’t be accessible but will have the right file system and everything. Note the drive letter path.

Step 4 – Let the process complete. If it asks to “convert lost chains to files”, type “y” for yes.

If only the file structure was damaged but not the files themselves, you will be able to get back all your files and use the memory card like normal again. Yep, the usually annoying CheckDisk tool can fix one memory card corrupted problem!

Problem 2 – Memory card shows invalid file system (RAW)

A corrupted memory card can also lose its file system and cannot be used because it’s not in a file system that Windows recognizes. The simplest solution for this memory card corrupted problem is a format. Here’s how you go about it:

Step 3 – Set the file system to “FAT”, not FAT32, NTFS, exFAT or anything else as most portable devices are compatible only with the FAT file system. Leave the allocation unit size as it is and uncheck “Quick format”.

Step 4 – Click format, let it finish and your memory card should be good as new!

Of course, formatting a memory card erases all data so make sure that you have a backup or you have recovered the data.

Problem 3 – Memory card cannot be read by PC

Even a problem like this one can be fixed quite easily by simply downloading updated drivers from your PC manufacturer. Always make sure you have the latest drivers and updates and if you’re running an assembled PC, grab the latest motherboard drivers.

There could be another problem as well. Newer cards are SDHC (high capacity) and are not readable on regular SD card readers. Make sure to get a SDHC card reader and updated drivers for it installed in your PC if you want to access the memory card on your PC. It’s the same case with the really high capacity SDXC (Extra capacity) cards.

If none of these are the cases, and even after the obligatory plugging in all ports doesn’t work, then do the following:

Step 1 – Insert the memory card into the card reader/adapter and plug it in to your PC.

Step 2 – Go to Device Manager via Control Panel and look for any devices that show up with a yellow exclamation mark (!).

Step 3 (a) – Right click the faulty device and try to automatically update drivers. If you are unable to, uninstall it, remove your device and restart computer. Alternatively, you could also right click and click “Scan for hardware changes” once it’s uninstalled.

Step 3 (b) – If your device still doesn’t show up, go to the “View” tab and click “Show hidden devices”. Now you might be able to see more faulty or greyed out devices. Right click, uninstall them and restart your computer with the device unplugged.

Step 4 – Once it’s booted up, plug it in again and it should be recognized.

Oh also, make sure that the little lock on the side of your memory card is not engaged.

The above steps will most probably get your memory card fixed, unless it’s completely damaged. Finally, if nothing works, the only solution is to buy a new memory card. Although, it would be a good idea to try and recover your data using a tool like Recuva. Leave us a comment and lets us know if you have any queries about fixing your corrupted memory card.

About The Author

Rahul Gondane is a huge technophile and gamer, who has been obsessed with everything tech ever since he was a wee lad. He also enjoys reading books, listening to music and watching movies. Rahul is the Chief Operating Officer of Pyrite Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Dear Admin
I am getting the response as “do you want format ‘yes or No ‘ only this two option” when i am trying to open my card.Even i tried insafe mode too.But i am getting same response is there any option to fix this issues .Advance thanks

Hey my memory card will not recognized means its showing that is not accessible its not readable it seems……if i put to the my phone its shoeing that SD card is damaged and its showing the message that format the memory card… and i don’t want to format my card i have to copy the content of the card and then i want to format it….so can you help me for this problem….

I’ve provided steps for the above problem in the article. Since a format is required, use the data recovery method above to recover your files and back them up. Then you can safely format the card and continue using it.

I have 16gb and when i insert it on mobile it says memory card corrupt and not able to format. When i use it on pc it shows removable disk e . But unable to format . Do you have any software to format it .

I did the steps to problem 1 and it said my disc is a RAW drive so i did the problem 2 solution and i set the file system to FAT and unchecked the quick format and it still was unable to format or fix my drive 😕

I have a memory card of 4 Gb micro SD. My problem is that when i insert my memory card to my laptop(window7 home basic 64bit) it show all file on it, but i cant delete or format the card. I also try ur 1st option of formating card by using cmd, but it stop on only 2% completed. And its show C:\users\admin>….pls help me

Dear Rahul Gondane! My memory card is showing a problem that it is giving error while copying data into it but whenever I open it through my PC or mobile it shows empty but when I check its properties it shows used memory… and yet when I tried to format it , It shows the error that windows is unable to format this device so please give me a quick successful solution to get rid of this problem…please

I have tried all the tips and my micro SD card is not recognized on my PC or on my Galaxy GSIII. It was working 2 days ago, and I do not want to lose all my pics and videos. I am put in another micro SD card and it is fine, so I know it is not the reader or my slot. I have done the device manager. I have tried the run command to format. Nothing is working. I have pics of my fiance, who is currently deployed, on the card, as well as my children, one of whom is no longer living. I don’t want to lose my stuff. Is there anything else I can try to retrieve my pics?

Hopefully if your pics are back, you can try formatting the card to use it again. Have you tried it on any other mobile phones? Did anything happen that could have caused this like you inserted the card into another phone or PC or dropped it or anything else?

Dear sir, i have a memory card when i connencted it in the computer a message is show that “You need to format the disk H: before you can use it”.In memory card properties ,free and used space are zero 0 bytes. when i format it ,it is not formated . i have 5 memorycard that broken that types. it is 2gb card but in the format properties (right click H:/format etc), show 121 mb.i have used all methods .utilities but not fix.plz sir do you have any solution for this.thanks

yes sir ,it say in another computers but in devices such as tablet pc ,digital cameras and mobile etc not shown or show corrupted. Actually my memory card show “raw” in the properties. it is not damaged as physically . thanks

my memory card is virus affected, it says “you need to format the disk drive E: before you can use it.do you want to format it?” i click the “format” but it says that “windows was unable to complete the format”……
i try to download CARD-RECOVERY-DATA…..MEMORY-CARD-DATA-RECOVERY….RECOVERY-DEMO…PHOTO-RECOVERY….TESTDISK 6.14.WIN.ZIP…and i try the CMD …and try to recover those data but nothings happen..it says that ” Drive E:/ is inaccessible” and it says also ” The drive or UNC share you selected does not exist or is not accessible.please select another one… ”

please help me… i want to recover the files in my memory card because it is so very important to me and i do everything just to recover those files.. i almost trying to recover it 5 days ago until now..theres an important pictures and videos and other files..and i think i’ll go crazy if i cant fix it…..but i dont know and i cant find the sulotion in my memory card problem…please help guys…please.please.please.

hi i have a problem with my mobile phone memory card. while it is in the phone there is no name or letter of the memory card when i cklick on it, it dosent open but say need to format i ve important dat in it what can i do to open memry card and have my data.?

Hi
My micro SD memory card 32Gb was demaged by some free APPS on ASUS tablet. Is not recognited anymore by the tablet. I tryed format it on PC but aftre formatting in properties it show only half capacity is free and another half is with data. The data is accessable and during the format is formating as 32GB.
Is this problem is fixable???

Yes I have the same prblm wat I want to do?
Pc shows insert a drive to local disk g
Phones didn’t shown anything
In Nokia they said my memory has been corrupted
It is 32 gb and I want that
Can u help me plz

That’s unique and never seen before information about getting a corrupted memory card back to life. It sounds good but my case is worse, the 8 GB memory card doesn’t even support on my computer, it totally makes the PC hang and doesn’t even get formatted. Do u have any solution for that?

hi
I was wondering if you can help me with my problem
I have this 8GB sd card that one day suddenly without any warning or anything cannot be detected by my phone
Then I try connect it with my adapter to my laptop (note that this is the first time I’ve ever removed my sd card from my phone) yet my laptop could not detect it
I try it with my camera, my camera detect it but cannot format it, it keep saying SD card need to be formatted again and again
I tried all above but none of them works
my command prompt says cannot open volume for direct access when I tried number 1 solutions
there are no removable storage connected to my laptop when I tried number 2 solutions
My Sd card is nowhere to be seen even after i set it to show hidden devices when i tried number 3 solutions
I search for cracks or stuff like that in my sd card but there is none, and this is kinda frustating
is there still a way to save my data from my micro sd after this?

hello sir,
my 16 gb sd card is not working…..
when i was connecting to my pc via mobile, 2 drives shows 1 is the internal and other is sd card….
even i tried through dos command…. but it says that cannot open volume for direct access

good evening i have tried all the above steps but yielded no positive result.
my sd card show 0 byte and cmd says no media is available when i use it.
disk management also show some times that the device is healthy
pls help

Nun of the steps worked for me and i am unable to use the card and not able to format also it is not showing the actual size of the card it just showing 30MB. I want to mention here i tried different softwares to fix the issue and on some of the soft wears i am getting error card is write protected i have checked every thing and tried almost everything but unable to format or recover anything from it.
But i appreciate your help and efforts,
Thanks…

Hello sir i had try all ur posts ideas to repair memory card.. bt nt succedded a single one… when ever i try to open through cmd or try to frm through cnd it says incirrect function,sometime it sats cannot open volume for direct access.. its only shows tge path f and nthng else…when i tried to frmt by clicking on frmt throgh right click it respind nothing..remains the same… bt when i hide the hidden item it get hides and when i cluck on shiw item in organize panel it again displays the same drive letter only..so plz help…i used recuva,mini partition tool wizard .

Hello Sir,
I am not able to open my My memory card, it ask for formatting. I used Autoplay option as well as iCare Data Recovery Pro software. but both options are fail. Please advice me. There are lots of important data in it.

sir my memory card not showing on pc , but it shows on my phone as courupted on .. nokia e72 , sometime ..it shows that enter the lock code, some time its not shows about lock code .. i tryed to format the memory card on ..mobile .. but its shows that ”error occuared wile formating ” !
is any way.. sir to recover my memory card ?

when i connect my memory card to pc it shows for format and then i try to format it.it shows it was unable to complete formating .
memory card details are also not showing
and i cant open it
and it has also no format option FAT

You are great man. You saved my life. My clients photographs were in the memory card. I was able to open the card, but was not able to find the pics inside. Your Problem 1 solution was able to recover all the files(except 1 file) to “Found.000” folder. Thanks much 🙂

Sir i cant fomat my sd card and it is showing error and cant download nothing and dont have sufficient money to buy other one i have tried all tricks but failed to fix my card plz tell me something from which i can fix it…
Plz sir hoping for ur +ve response

sir,
the problem with my micro SD card is, i have formatted the memory card & it shows format complete but still i am able to see all the media files that i had before formatting. i have also tried formatting with my mobile, but the results are the same. what do u suggest??

dear sir, my 4 GB memory card was full filled with data bt it was corrupted & demands a password while i didn’t insert any password in it & not showing the size of memory card, unable to connect with pc & my entire data has been crashed so what should i do & sir its LOW LEVEL FORMAT TOOL is costly & after this i too need a data recovery software professional version which i can’t purchase bcoz i m umemployee if u both ‘ve so please help me & if could so then send these software by mail, my e-mail id is “sunny.kumar4505@gmail.com

Dear sir
I have sony make 8gb memory card
some time display showing your sd is blank or unsupported , if use to other mobile phone also initialy show the display format sd card doing format also after not detect the memory card in phone
pls suggest need ful steps and I want recovey my data sir

Hi sir, I need your help. My SD Card 16gb, kingston. I just bought it for a year plus but not under warranty anymore. However, my SD Card stopped functioning while my phone is switch on. All in sudden stopped functioning. As your info I rarely take out my SD Card but I transfer all my gallery tru Bluetooth to my laptop. I try to restart my phone it’s still cannot detect. Then I remove and reinsert the SD Card it’s still cannot functioning. It’s show in my phone mount SD, and ask me to insert SD Card. Which mean didn’t detect at all. So, i use Card reader to connect to my laptop still cannot read anything. I feel so sad because i want my photos so badly. Therefore, I tried the method that you provide in this page but it’s show me ‘cannot open volume for direct access’. 🙁 Sir, what should I do to only get back all my gallery? maybe not all but get back half of my gallery? I really want my photos. Any suggestion sir? 🙁

Sir,I have Samsung Galaxy S2;& my 3 Memorycards are already been corrupted in just 4months!
That Memorycard can be detected by my pc but can not be assessed!
What should Ido?
Plz reply..can I recover my cards?
& what should I do to save further cards?

In my memory card shows free space 6.5gb but iam not able to download are receive anything, if i delete videos images it will be deleting but once i switch off and on my mobile all deleted files Will be return back in my mobile,
How can i delete permanently please tell me.
Please solve my problem.

Hi sir,
My transcend 8gb memory card is showing,( SD card is damaged and try to format it.)But i am inserted my SD card into laptop via card reader it is showing just 30 mb . I use all data recovery softwares.its showing Raw files. and also use command prompt code but it not solved my problem. I approach an data recovery center the sevice peoples are telling it will charge 2500/- to recover the data. Please Tell me is there any chance to recover my files.
My error is showing in laptop
********************************
G: is not accessible
The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and volume is not corrupted.

I’ll getting the problem no 2 of above. I am following the steps mentioned above, but whet I am trying to set file system, there was no any file system available in the list.
What shall I do? Please help me.

hii sir my 16gb sd card is corrupted i tried to to format it in phone and even in pc i followed all ur steps i dont care if i loose the files but i just want my sd card back in working condition soooo plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help me :'(

Sir, my problem is when i copy files/data’s on memory card from PC or Bluetooth from another mobile phones, it always get damage and says “Files cannot be open”. I’ve lost all my pictures after when i moved my files Phone memory to Memory card (SD CARD). help me please

when i insert my 1gb memory card into my itel 5130 phone,the memory card is not detected it looks as if there is no memory card or the phone is not detecting it and when i try to format it,it shows “unsupported memory card” format it?..when i click format,it shows “failed”…how can i go about it so as to make it work again?

My memory card is not formatting.windows unable to formatt dialog box will appear in windows 10.I try your 1st problem step but after all process complete there is no changes in my memory card.if delete everything from my memory card.Every thing wich i deleted come back again

Sir…i hav clicked many pics in my camera yesterday..later i tuk out the sd card nd inserted in card reader nd connected to my laptop..there was no problem..i copied all pics…today morning i clicked few more nice pics..again i hav put the sd card in card reader and connected to my laptop..but now its showing you need to format the disk in drive J before u can use it…what to do?? If i format, all the vl get erased…i need those pics..plz help me????

I have a 8 gb memory card and had all of the data on it without backup and suddenly its now corrupted during data transfer or watsoever and now when i insert in laptop,it just asks-do u wanna format.? and i dont wanna coz all of my data’s on it and i also tried recovery software to fetch all but that data is also corrupted and its very imp for me.. So is der any way i can get whole of it and proper too as it was..??? please help..!! Thanks in advance 🙂

My 4 gb memory card is showing unreadable in the disk management section and when i m going to open it then it says plz insert disk into drive…..and as i click onto the removable drive my pc starts hanging….. I am connecting it by card reader….. Plz help me out…. Plz Send ur reply to my email id

Hello Sir. I have a 8Gb sd card. I can’t open my sd card in window. I even try the chdsk command And i got the error that sd card in Raw format. So i try to open the raw sd card in Kali linux but my sd card cannot be detected in the kali linux platform. I don;y want to format my sd card card because i need the files(images in the sd card). How to solve the problem??

hey, dear i have got a 32gb micro sd card which doesn’t shows up in explorer, but when i insert it in the phone it shows the card as well as data in it. on the explorer the drive is grey, and when clicked it shows insert a removable drive. i have tried in disk management but there it only shows up the drive letter and no partition and when i open diskpart and try using clean command it shows up “no virtual drive” and if we check the format of the disk it shows up raw(basic). please help… !!!

When i was taking photos with my android phone that stores picture files into the phone micro sd card, it hanged. When i force off and on the phone again, the phone wouldnt work. Finally i took out e micro sd card and the phone works norm. But my micro sd card can never be read again. I tried inserting to the phone, it shows “card inserted” but no data shown. I tried using different card adapters which used to work for this card also cant show the card’s data on my pc and laptops (the different adapters can show other cards but just not this card).
I tried using all your methods and using the command prompt (shows “cannot open volume for direct access”), low level format tool also cannot detect the card.
Im very lost now. Please advise what else can be done to retrieve my photos inside the card.
Thanks in advance

i have a memory card of 16gb ,wn i insert to the mobile it doesnt recognises nd wn i connected it to my system nd checked in the disk managemnet its nly showing the size as 126mb nd tht too in the RAW formate….i tried every method all the recovry tools etc but i am nt able o recoer th files…sir pls help me out …..

I followed several websites until I found your article, which was very detailed and helpful.

And I proceeded to do a format using the command: format E:. /fs:FAT
as FAT was not an option in the windows GUI for disk management or file systems.
However now I’ve been stuck at 41% formatting completion for the past couple hours. I was wondering if it was okay to force stop the formatting and start the formatting process again or would that cause problems for the data recovery of the MicroSD card. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

32GB MicroSD card Samsung EVO, used with Samsung S5 when suddenly all the data was inaccessible.

It usually isn’t okay to stop the formatting, but in this case there’s no other option. If you were looking for data recovery, you should have tried before initiating the format. For now I suggest you try a low level format using this tool:

Can u plz help me…….
I have 8gb transcend sd card….
When i insert in my pc using card reader I first ask to format and use it..when I choose format and click on format drive it shows windows was unable to format and then the sd card suddenly disappears and it shows insert sd card…then I have to again remove the card reader and put it again and the same message again…….and it shows raw format in diak management….plz help me out

My sd card is neither accessed by my smartphone nor by computer….
One day i was transferring a video from pendrive through otg cable to my phone and suddenly sending video stopped and then i tried to delete that video but not successful. Phone’s file manager was showing that this video is read only. I couldn’t delete or move it.
Then i tried by computer but computer was not able to read.
And now it’s neither accessed by computer nor by phone.
Please help me to solve this problem… as i can’t format this sd card because there is 15 gb important data on it and it’s a 32 gb samsung Evo class 10 sd card…
So please help me..

sir i newly buy a 32 gb memory card there is a problem in that memory card will u plz tell me a solution to slove this problem plzzzz sir
Problem :-
while moving or else copying the files from internal sd to external sd the files are automatically corrupted and show so many errors(corrupted files)but its not showing my copied or else moved files in that external sd card
plzz sir tell me a solution to slove this problem

I have my new memory card of 16 gb of sandisk sdhc which is acessible by pc with card reader but data copied or moved in it is not acssible by mobile or pc the data is corrupted after sometime is there any way to fix

hello sir, i recently updated my android one to android 6.0 marshmallow . after the update it asked me to set up the sd card. i set it up as use as internal storage which then asked me to format as internal storage and accidentally i selected erase and format. since i wanted the data i hurriedly pulled out the micro sd card from my android.
i have a samsung 16 gb micro sd card.
NOW, it can’t be detected in my laptop. i checked my laptop with other sd card and my other micro sd card is working just fine. I am using sd card adapter to connect it to my laptop and i have also checked it is not in LOCK POSITION. however i can see the sd card in my android’s file manager showing 0B with one more file media_rw also showing 0B. selecting it says no found match application to open. Also it is seen in storage section written samsung sd card corrupted. i followed all the steps from problem 3. i reached in device manager and found MTP driver marked with YELLOW EXCLAMATION MARK. i searched for its update automatically and it said it was up to date.

then, instead of uninstalling it i directly scanned for hardware changes. since nothing happened i clicked view tab and show hidden devices but was not able to find any greyed out drivers. also the MTP DRIVER WITH YELLOW MARK VANISHED and i could not find it. i restarted the laptop several times after that but the condition didn’t changed . can u please help in the matter. i really want to recover the data. thanks

Hi Anant, there’s a very low chance of being able to recover the data because it was pulled out during a format, so partition tables may be damaged. MTP drivers are device based, so there’s nothing to worry about that. Your best bet is to format the card from the phone and see if it works. If it doesn’t, then once formatted from phone it should be readable on your laptop, where you can perform a low level format.

Hey my memory card will not
recognized means its showing that is
not accessible its not readable it
seems……if i put to the my phone its
shoeing that SD card is damaged and
its showing the message that format
the memory card… and i don’t want to
format my card i have to copy the
content of the card and then i want to
format it….so can you help me for this
problem….

I once put a password on my sd card and now I have forgotten that .the sd card is only being read by my asha Nokia mobile which wants password to open it and the sd card is not being read by any other mobile nor my pc I tried the cmd chkdsk but it says connot open volume for direct access please help to recover data I only want the data from it the sd card is useless so please help

Hi Sir,
I am Logesh sathya using for samsung 16gb sd card file error code is { 000001 } am not able to open or view for mp3 songs ,videos or other files so what to do for this error to solve the problem.

hello sit my name is anand tupe
i have a 8 GB memory card which is password blocked and when i connect it through card reader to the pc it detects for a half second and sudden disappear i want to delete, remove or format whatever is option i will do but please help to give me my memory card in use again
when i insert in simple mobile phones it detects easily and ask for password but when i insert in any android phone it not detects
please help me, waiting for your soluton

Hello Sir.. I clicked pics from my micromax device using candycam app, the phone memory was almost full but the pics were getting stored in memorycard but now when I m trying to open it, none of the pic is getting open, no pic is there n error msg is there and pics are showing 0 bute.. Pllzz help me to recover it.. Those pics. R very imp. For me..

Hi,
I have a samsung 16gb micro sd. I am not able to add or delete files from my micro sd. It is not write protected. I tried the normal format..it said “unable to format file”..tried hp formatter,still failed to format..tried file shredder..it showed that one of the thumbnail is invalid..and now i did chkdsk using cmd..it says the thumbnail error and says card unusable. Can u provide a solution for this? cuz none of the formatting softwares or cmd methods seem to work

I have two memory cards ???? recently one of them is not working
There is no physical damage
Phone shows memory card not inserted other memory cards are working well
A lot of personal data stored in that card
Plz suggest hw to recollect that data

sir I have a class 10 samsung 32gb micro SD card. ideally it should show around 29.7gb free memory, but mine shows 31.24gb
the problem is that I am unable to write it and by chance if I could write anything I lose it when I restart my phone. checked with more than 4 different phones

Sir, i shifted the files from my pc to a sd card and then tried to open the file in my phone but only some files work and rest show “file format not supported”. These files are generaaly mp3 files. And the pictures or other files gets corrupted or deleted. I tried every step mentioned above but still its not working. Please HELP !!
(for eg. if i shift 400 songs in it, then it only shows 200 in the file manager and rest deleted or hidden coz in music player all files are showed but only few works)